Vought Tower | Thursday Evening

[defenderofdesmoines]

Today had been exhausting, but Annie couldn't sleep.

She'd eventually gotten out of that press junket and had changed her clothes quickly up in her apartment before meeting Hughie (in Times Square, which was kind of genius; it was busy enough that no one would recognize her, and if they did, they'd probably think she was a lookalike) and passing the V off to him.

And now they waited.

While Annie knew, logically, that the news probably wouldn't break until morning, and that she would definitely be alerted when it did, she still couldn't seem to keep from checking things compulsively -- she'd checked her news feed on her phone every few minutes since this afternoon, and even now, late into the night, she had the television facing her bed on with the sound off just in case the lower third of the screen illuminated with a breaking news alert.

She'd done a bunch of push-ups and sit-ups in an effort to dispel this nervous energy and get her mind off things, and had spent a few minutes poking around on her favorite time-killing websites, but nothing was quite distracting enough. She was anxious and so excited about this that she might just vibrate out of her skin, but on top of that, she was lonely. It was so isolating, being in the middle of something like this without any help -- save for her reluctant partnership with an exhausted guy who she really hadn't quite forgiven yet.

And it was that loneliness that had her staring up at her ceiling in bed for a long few minutes before she reached over to her nightstand for her phone.

And then put it back down. It really was late, right?

...but that was also the point, maybe?

Half-hoping that he wouldn't answer, she went ahead and pulled up her texts with Diego, and typed in:

are you up?

[obv for boyfriend, yes. also go ahead and assume 'u up?' means what it means and proceed with NSFW-related caution.]

Comments

[knife_bender]

Diego had been in bed, but not quite asleep yet. Still awake enough to want to look at a text when he got one instead of ignoring it.

He sat up a little, and immediately tamped down the urge to ask Annie what was wrong. There had been a lot going on, but he liked to think if something was wrong she'd just call him.

Yep. Just laying in bed. You're up late

[defenderofdesmoines]

can't sleep.

Obviously. There had been a lot going on, and Annie had actually, for the first time in her life, started having consistent problems falling asleep.

But...yes, she would have called, and this would have been communicated very differently, if there had been something explicitly wrong, so she followed it up with,

I miss you a lot right now.

[knife_bender]

I miss you too

He did, a lot. He was pretty much constantly missing her and worrying about her these days, especially now since she was actively working against Vought. He also knew better than to offer to visit since Homelander was a pretty big threat right now.

Anything I can do?

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie typed and erased a few variations of what she wanted to say before offering, Stay up with me a little bit?

And while she was not brave enough to come right out and say what she was looking for, here (yes, Annie was brave enough to find a black site in the middle of the night and attack six grown men, but also too shy to just boldly ask her boyfriend to send a dirty picture or whatever, it was a thing) she could hint around with the best of them.

I'm wearing your shirt and it's just making me miss you more.

[knife_bender]

Okay, Diego could be dense sometimes but he wasn't that dense. He immediately called Annie because, really, his texting skills were still lacking in general, but especially here.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Well, hi there," Annie said, picking up on, like, the end of the first ring since she was literally looking at her phone when it started ringing. She sounded a little shy but also maybe a touch amused, since she had maybe sent that last text as a deliberate means of trying to make herself a little more obvious.

It had been a little optimistic to think that he might remember a months-old conversation about what middle-of-the-night questions about whether one was awake might mean, but hopefully that had cleared things up a bit.

[knife_bender]

"So you're wearing my shirt, huh?" he asked, teasing.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Yup," Annie said, and reached down to lightly smooth the fabric of said shirt along her stomach. "I thought it might help me sleep but it's totally not."

Kind of the opposite effect, actually.

[knife_bender]

"I hate to break it to you, but my clothes don't come with sleeping powers," he said lightly. There was a short pause, followed by, "Is that the only thing you're wearing?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie had been thinking less of sleeping powers and more that it might be comforting to be sort of enveloped in something that she associated strongly with Diego.

And it was comforting, yes, but...not in a way that was making her sleepy.

"I have underwear on, too," she replied, shifting a little to nestle herself lower in bed and blushing even if he couldn't see. "Also black."

She figured he might want an accurate picture. She was just helping.

[knife_bender]

He did appreciate that picture, and he knew Annie well enough to know she was blushing right now. He liked the fact that she was still going for it, even if it did make her blush.

"What a coincidence, I'm wearing black underwear too." What a shocker. "No shirt though."

[defenderofdesmoines]

Meanwhile, Annie was just, like, so grateful he had figured out what it was she was going for, because it was already making her turn red enough that she could feel the heat from her skin.

Not that she wanted to stop, even if it was destined to make her blush even more.

"Aw, we match." For a given value of 'matching,' sure. "I wish I was there so we could match in person."

[knife_bender]

"Me too," he said. "Though technically we're not completely matching. You're wearing a shirt."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I could...not be wearing a shirt," Annie noted, her voice dropping a little lower. "Like, so we match better."

Yep, all in the name of matching. Look, Annie was going to take these little scraps of plausible deniability where she could get them.

Her welts were healing really nicely, too. Not that she was going to bring it up -- even if they were both apparently super into post-gunshot sexy comfort, it still had the potential to be a little mood-killing -- but you could barely even see where she'd been shot, now.

[knife_bender]

"In a second," he said, settling himself against the pillows as he got more comfortable with this. It wasn't like this was something he did often. "There's something else I want you to do first."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I didn't know you could be bossy at a distance," Annie teased softly, her tone indicating that she certainly did not mind any long-distance bossiness.

(She kind of needed him to be long-distance bossy, honestly, because if it was left up to her, this would probably end with Annie blushing profusely and hanging up embarrassed, never to speak of this experiment again.)

[knife_bender]

"I think I'm even better at being bossy from a distance." Probably because when she was actually around him he lost some brain cells (in a good way). "Is that a problem?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Probably not," Annie replied, smiling a little to herself. "Depends. I haven't heard what you're being bossy about, yet."

Annie was pretty sure it would be, like, the opposite of a problem.

[knife_bender]

"What if I told you I wanted you to touch yourself?" he asked, glad she couldn't see him right now because he could his face heat up a bit. "That shirt is thin enough that you can feel your nipples through it, isn't it?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie was quiet for a moment -- there was absolutely a second where she considered whether she could still pass this off as, 'Ha ha that was a prank,' or something -- before she reached a hand up and gently brushed a thumb across her breast through the shirt.

"It definitely is," she murmured, her breath giving a telltale little hitch as she touched herself. "They're really easy to feel now."

Because it turned out that being told what to do like this -- not to mention her own touch -- was kind of working a lot for Annie already.

[knife_bender]

Diego bit down on his lip, definitely all in on this the second he heard her make that noise. “You know if I were there I’d have my mouth on them by now.”

[defenderofdesmoines]

Annie shifted in bed slightly, letting out another soft noise, though this one was a little more frustrated-sounding.

"You absolutely would. And your hands," she agreed, sliding her hand over her other breast with a little more confidence and lightly pinching. "My hands aren't as big as yours, but I'm trying."

This was likely to be a recurring thing that she noted, but she felt like saying something like that might spur on Diego's imagination, the way he was spurring hers on.

[knife_bender]

“Good,” he said, breath hitching a little. He closed his eyes, trying to get a clear picture of how that would look. “Take your shirt off.”

[defenderofdesmoines]

Ugh, it really was super hot to hear his breathing change like that. Annie got it now, and that just made her feel that much more confident.

"Your shirt," Annie corrected softly, just to do it, before setting her phone down for a second. There was a rustling noise, then Annie returned, slightly breathless. "Done."

And now she was just going to slide low in bed, like someone might bust her for this. (And thankfully, she'd remembered the deadbolt, so no one would.)

[knife_bender]

“I wish I could see you,” he said, running a hand down his own chest. He made a soft noise as his thumb caught on his nipple. “I love watching you.”